The bright blue skies and hint of spring of a recent Sunday morning in South Orange, N.J., had apparently done little to soften C. Patricia Harrison’s disposition, or so the dark scowl greeting a visitor at her daughter’s single-family home would suggest.

No!, was all the 57-year-old convicted real estate developer would offer when asked to answer questions regarding charges that she and her husband, Stephen G. Harrison, have been hiding millions of dollars of assets that the federal government wants to seize to satisfy a $10.9 million restitution order against Patricia Harrison. The levy resulted from one of the country’s largest bank fraud scandals. Patricia Harrison was convicted in 1995 of 77 counts of defrauding two Bay State banks, the defunct Bank of New England and Sentry Federal Saving of Hyannis, out of an estimated $34 million in connection with her development of a luxury residential complex and golf course in Falmouth. She was convicted of using bank funds for lavish parties, an apartment at the Ritz Carlton in Boston, and to buy expensive artwork and antiques. The Ballymeade project in Falmouth collapsed in 1990.

For more than two years, and with only limited success to date, the federal Justice Enforcement Team has been chasing the Harrisons up and down the East Coast attempting to uncover cash, jewelry and artwork that they maintain is stashed away in various locations. Based out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts, the JET team is comprised of various federal agencies that seek to recover fines and restitution orders owed to the federal government, including those resulting from the banking and lending scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Thus far, the JET team has located some of the Harrisons’ property, including more than $100,000 in artwork from a Connecticut storage facility, and officials say they are optimistic that they will soon identify additional assets.

We haven’t found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow just yet, said Patrick McKenna Jr., a JET team member representing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. We have had some success, but we do have a lot more work to do.

If nothing else, JET has managed to uproot the Harrisons from a secret lifestyle they had enjoyed in Northwestern Connecticut during the mid- to late 1990s, one in which they ingratiated themselves to the social elite of Goshen. For part of that time, while she was actually serving an 18-month sentence at the Danbury, Conn., Federal Correctional Institution and a halfway house in Pennsylvania, Patricia Harrison concocted a story that she was in Malaysia doing interior design work for the richest man in the world.

They were big story tellers, said Jacqueline Buckmiller, a former friend and Connecticut resident who became entangled in the Harrisons’ elaborate schemes. Buckmiller, who met the couple through her husband, at one point stored a heavy box for them with the understanding that it held personal documents and other legal papers. Federal officials now believe the secured box contained some of the valuables in question, and possibly cash, but the vessel has not been seen since Stephen Harrison whisked it away one day.

There’s a definite feeling that we only have the tip of the iceberg, said Christopher J. Alberto, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston who heads up the JET team. What was in the box, and why were they so careful with it?

Alberto, whose JET team has captured millions of dollars in fines from drug dealers and white collar criminals, hopes to file a complaint next week in New Jersey that would allow the seized artwork to be sold to satisfy Patricia Harrison’s restitution order. JET also wants a $400,000 life insurance policy made out on Stephen Harrison’s life to be directed against the restitution and is also seeking money from Stephen Harrison to recoup the costs of the ongoing investigation.

Although Patricia Harrison would not comment in person, and did not return repeated phone calls to her in New Jersey, she has admitted in court documents that she and Stephen Harrison transferred $300,000 to a Cayman Islands account following her indictments. She explained to JET that, we wanted to be sure that we had that set aside for legal fees, that … the government sometimes … comes and prevents you from getting money out of your account. By the time JET uncovered the account, however, the funds were depleted.

The JET case revolves largely around the years in which the Harrisons lived in the quiet Goshen community in a plush condominium. In a lie that last year landed her in a Philadelphia halfway house for an additional 90 days, Patricia Harrison told her probation officer that she was actually living in Prospect, Conn., in a home owned by a nephew of Buckmiller’s husband. The nephew, who had never met Patricia Harrison, was contacted after Buckmiller refused to allow her address to be used for the scheme. The nephew did not return phone calls from Banker & Tradesman, but McKenna agreed that the man was not an active participant in the overall scheme.

Kingpin
In an effort to identify valuables, JET went to the Goshen home and photographed jewelry and artwork after uncovering the secret address, but officials now charge that the expensive assets were removed before the pictures were taken. The neighbors later testified that the photographed pieces were not on the walls when they visited the Harrisons for social events and dinner parties, maintaining that the items they saw were in fact of much higher quality. Those pieces have yet to be found.

As part of the investigation, JET also discovered that the Harrisons had used the name of their daughter, Courtney Harrison, and a college friend of Stephen Harrison, to rent storage facilities in Canaan, Conn., and Sheffield, Mass., both a few miles from the Goshen residence. Employees at the storage facility in Massachusetts testified that the woman renting the space alternately used Patricia and Courtney as her name and was an older woman who did not appear to be Courtney’s age.

The artwork found by JET was stashed in the Canaan facility, but investigators believe the most valuable items were removed just prior to their arrival.

JET would not identify which pieces of art they believe are still missing, but witnesses have testified that they include several works from New York artist Peter Max and New Mexico artist R.C. Gorman. Vases, statues and other sculptures are also said to be unaccounted for.

Since being released from the Philadelphia halfway house last year, Patricia Harrison and her husband have lived in the South Orange home of Courtney and her husband, Christopher Zlocki.

While Stephen Harrison was once considered the driving force behind the couple’s major Massachusetts real estate debacle, a proposed luxury residential complex and golf course in Falmouth, a picture is emerging that paints Patricia Harrison as the kingpin in the family. One former employee, who worked for the couple from 1981 until the Falmouth project collapsed in 1990, said Patricia controlled all financial transactions and decisions, not allowing Stephen Harrison to sign any checks or even to have his own credit card. Stephen Harrison was never prosecuted for his participation in the project, known as Ballymeade, but that has been attributed to his failing health.

The former employee and private investigators, who stepped in after the Bank of New England scheme unraveled, described Patricia Harrison as a brazen con artist who even duped the bank into believing she was an heir to Florida’s famous Flagler family. According to one investigator, who requested anonymity, bank officials backed down when Patricia Harrison threatened to take her business elsewhere.

McKenna and Alberto pledged that JET will continue to aggressively pursue the matter, although Patricia Harrison will end her parole later this summer. Once that happens, and she is able to leave the South Orange residence, McKenna said it would be more difficult to track the couple’s whereabouts, although he stressed that JET will not let up on the investigation.